On Friday March 11th Mz. Bice Curiger (Bicey to though of us who know her) released the list for the showing artists for The Venice Biennale 54. At first we were surprised that we did not get a phone call contacting us in person regarding which venue Our Important Work was to honor. We were waiting with much anticipation to learn whether we would showing in the Arsenal,  perhaps instead get play around in one of those darling Palazzo’s scattered all around the coastal town of Venice.

We do realize how expensive long distance phone calls are these days, and we might have forgotten to provide them with our Skype address. Being the Very Good Sports that we are, we sort of reveled in the excitement of scanning for names on a list like it was high school and we were looking to confirm that our rivals got put into the chorus as we of course continued to shine in all the lead roles.

Well, the chorus would have been great. After reading this so-called list a few hundred times, followed by frantic phone calls to Venice, we found that place in our artist souls which allowed us to come to accept that Bicey simply could not find us the proper fit this time around. I mean why give a group as great as The Biennial Project a so-so Venue. It would be like drinking beer out of a can at a black tie event.

By the way Bicey, it is considered polite to return phone calls in a timely manner. However, we do understand that you might be somewhat busy at this time, so we will refrain from talking about your manners behind your back.

Our emotional roller coaster, which started with giddy excitement, then took a dip to the vernal despair, and leveled out at peaceful acceptance to the point where we found ourselves able to take stock at who was actually showing. Our emotions were then skyrocketed to elation. A lot fantastic colleagues and good friends (and to be honest one or two enemies) from around the world would be rocking their own Kasbah at The Venice Biennale 54. Brice has seemingly put together a kick ass show even without our vision!!

Who would have thought?

Now that we have worked all that out we are proud to present our first installment of

THE BIENNIAL PROJECTS GUIDE TO VENICE 54

THE ONES TO WATCH OUT FOR:

CUBA!!!!!!!

We are really pleased to announce that  Cuban Artist Alexandre Arrechea will be doing more then rolling cigars this summer.  Alex has been chosen to represent Cuba! Go to his website http://www.alexandrearrechea.com and see for yourself how universal healthcare can foster great artists. 

Czechia!!!!!!!

.

Being that we will be traveling with a huge contingent from The Czech Republic we would be amiss not to mention that, after much squabbling amongst the members Czech Ministry of Culture and us as well, Dominik Lang will now be representing The Czech and Slovak Republic at this years event.

This young man of 30 will be presenting an exhibit called The Sleeping City and is also the perfect artist to keep the Pavilion clean for the fabulously talented Czech representative to the 55th Biennale 55  Bohuslav Petran.

For more information on Dom go to http://www.54venicebiennial.cz/

For more information on the noted Czech artist Bo Petran, check out www.atlantic works.org.

BANGLADESH!!!!!!!!

There are several countries coming to Venice for the first time. Entering this club is Bangladesh-being represented by Bangladeshi artists Mahbubur Rahman, Kabir Ahmed Masum Chisti, Imran Hossain Piplu, Promothesh Das Pulak and Tayeba Begum Lipi. These artists, who will presenting a show entitled Parables, are from an organization called Britto Arts Trust, which since 2002 has been giving the artists of Dhaka an alternative platform for arts. Bangladeshi culture is influenced by three great religions- Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam in successive order, with Islam having the most pervading and lasting impact. Bangladesh is the eighth most populous country and is among the most densely populated countries in the world. Next time you are near Dhaka do stop in and check them out.

http://www.brittoarts.org/

SOUTH AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our favorite selection of Bicey’s this year would have to be Gavin Rain. Gavin Rain is a  South African painter in the neo-pointillist style who has only been painting full time for two years. To quote him from his       facebook page the day Bricy called him:

“the most amazing thing that can happen to an artist just happened to me... the curator of the Venice Biennale, the greatest art show in the world, just invited me to be a part of the 2011 show.... the fact that he even knew who I was staggered me.... I'm going to need a lot more tea to digest this... luckily there's no shortage of tea in Paris...”

A GUY WE LIKE!!!!!!!

See, as we at The Biennial Project

and Casey Kasem (born April 27)

will always tell you -

“Keep your feet on the ground

and keep reaching for the stars”.